Wednesday morning we were up bright and early… so early in fact, it made more sense to walk to the parks than wait for the free shuttle, which we did. Today was designated as a Disney Studio day so that’s where we headed, arriving at 9:30, a half hour before the park officially opened. This park is similar to the Studio park in Florida and parts of California Adventure in Anaheim, focused as it were around movie making so when we got in, walking through a Route 66 style road-stop (food and souvenir shops), we stopped at the intersection of Hollywood and Vine to decide what to do first. Continue reading “Spring 2014: Day Three – Movies, Moters and Magic Dreams”
Category: Travel
Spring 2014: Day Two – Dragons and Squids and a Dangerous Rain Storm
Tuesday morning arrived early, but not as early as it would have had I been at home with the crazy dog! I got to sleep in to the absurdly late hour of 8am! We both woke up, showered and were able to catch the 9:30 shuttle to the parks (which was good since otherwise we wouldn’t know where to catch it to bring us home, and in light of later events, that would not have been good). Continue reading “Spring 2014: Day Two – Dragons and Squids and a Dangerous Rain Storm”
Spring 2014: Day One – Flying High and Climbing Higher
Our trip started fairly easily. I was traveling with my friend Rasa, having decided I was going to go to Disneyland Paris (which is exactly the same as EuroDisney, but not allowed to be called that anymore) and she had decided she wanted to accompany me. It worked out nicely since going to Disneyland by yourself just sucks. So we did a little bit of planning and plotting and had decided that the three full days we were going to be in France (we flew in on Monday afternoon and flew out early in the morning on Friday) would be spent at the two Disney parks (Disneyland and Disney Studios) and so bought three for two day tickets and were ready to go. Of course, since this was going to be Rasa’s first time in France she asked if we could somehow see the Eiffel Tower, so we figured we’d do that on Monday, after we got to town. With all this in mind, we headed out early to catch a train to Vilnius, where our plane left from.
Continue reading “Spring 2014: Day One – Flying High and Climbing Higher”
Photo challenge
Just before my recent trip to America, I received this email from Monika, asking for a specific series of photos to be taken while I was away. Now, Monika and I have travelled together a few times and she knows of my passion for picture taking. And she has one of the driest senses of humor I’ve ever been privy to, outside of 70s BBC night time programming.
So here’s the list, as written, with my photos attached. Enjoy! (My notes are added in red) Continue reading “Photo challenge”
These shoes were made for walking
All journeys, so they say, begin with the first step. This journey to America for the first time in 21 months began with new shoes.
Two Crazy People in Tallinn
So a few weeks ago my friend Monika asked me if I wanted to go to Tallinn with her. She’s a tour guide and has been to Tallinn a number of times but always with a group and there were some things she wanted to check out for herself, some places she wanted to find so she could guide people there on her tours. And there was a Christmas Market, which is always fun. Continue reading “Two Crazy People in Tallinn”
How to piss off a Lithuanian | Matador Network
On behalf of my adopted home, I will be righteously outraged at any of these offenses (except the Basketball one).
…and fish
Couple of bits of background are going to be needed here… The first is that my friend Monika gave me, for my birthday, a book of 100 places to visit in Lithuania and a red stuffed goldfish with the admonition that I had until my next birthday, July 13th for those of you keeping track, to take a picture of the fish in as many of the 100 locations as possible. She gave her brother the same book (in Lithuanian) and a yellow crab with the same directive.
The second thing you need to know is another friend, Annie, whom I have known for almost 35 years, is visiting from Australia with her partner Brad. The started their trip in Torino, Italy, where Brad was participating in a Beach Volleyball Tournament and then headed up to Kaunas earlier in the week to hang out and visit and see Lithuania.
So…
Continue reading “…and fish”A note about (bad) hostels…In particular the Belford in Edinburgh
I recently returned from an amazing 9 day trip through Scotland, Ireland and Northern England and in the past, I’ve travelled through most of Europe and quite a bit of the United States. I’ve stayed in a number of hostels and while some experiences have been better than others, I had one on this last trip which ranked so far down the list, I felt the need to actually write a bit about it – and the hosteling experience in general.
To start with the bad… The hostel in question here is The Belford Hostel in Edinburgh, Scotland. I’ll get to why they rank so low in a moment but first, a word about what, in my opinion, makes a good hostel and where this one fails (and the one place they succeed). Continue reading “A note about (bad) hostels…In particular the Belford in Edinburgh”
Man and The Machine – Day six in Manchester
The bus to Manchester left at 5am. This meant we had to be out of the hostel by 4ish and at the train station when it opens at 4:45 or so. That’s early. Even for me with an annoyingly early rising dog. But that’s okay, we’re professional travelers, we got this!
And we did. At the station by about 10 to five and on the bus when it arrived. It was mostly empty that early, so we settled in for smooth sailing down south to the English home of Football. If only it went that way.
Continue reading “Man and The Machine – Day six in Manchester”
Monster Hunting – Day five in Scotland
Thursday was our second tour with Heart of Scotland Tours, this time we were going north to see Loch Ness. To say I was excited about this would bean understatement. When Scotland was first proposed as a vacation destination my first thought was “I want to see Loch Ness.” Now, I know this isn’t anything real, but I don’t care. Just the idea of going there and seeing it for myself was intriguing! Continue reading “Monster Hunting – Day five in Scotland”
Reaching the heights of culture – Day three in Scotland
Our first full day in Edinburgh started off just fine. We easily walked into town, across the Waverley Bridge and into the Old Town. A wee bit about Edinburgh history here. Everything started with the Castle, which has been around, in one form or another, for close to 2000 years. It was built on the mound of an extinct volcano and would have been an imposing presence no matter which era you’d seen it. Had there been guidebooks back then, Roman centurions would have found it on their list of “places to avoid.” Continue reading “Reaching the heights of culture – Day three in Scotland”
The Borderlands – Day two in Scotland
Leaving the hostel early enough to not only make our 9am bus tour, but to find breakfast and the place to meet our bus tour wasn’t as easy as it sounds. Not that leaving was hard, nor getting up in time (I don’t sleep late anyway, thank you, Laika) but just figuring out what to do for food and where the bus stop was accounted for a slight bit of frustration. In the end, we opted for jumping in to a local supermarket (Sainsbury, for those playing UK Location Bingo) and grabbing some eat on the go stuff and then figuring out that our tour pick-up point was actually quite near Calton Hill… and we were a little early so we decided to eat up on the hill with the view of the nearby body of water which is called the “Firth of Forth” (try saying that three times fast!). Firth means estuary and Forth is the bay which leads out to the ocean so that’s what we were looking at before heading back down and joining our group. Continue reading “The Borderlands – Day two in Scotland”
Hop on – Day one in Scotland
Meeting Jennifer and getting to our hostel wasn’t much of an adventure. It was fairly easy to find the bus to take us into town and then a nice gentleman, who was walking our way anyway, showed us where our hostel was. Where we were staying, the Belford Hostel, is located in an old church (and more on that later). We dropped off our bags and headed back out (It was early, so we couldn’t even check in yet) to explore the city. Jennifer had been here before so she was a font of knowledge as we walked around. Continue reading “Hop on – Day one in Scotland”
My mother has a 46 year old son
My birthday celebration really started on Friday when I saw some friends and got some nice gifts and cards and a visit from my friend Anna from Budapest. I also saw Pacific Rim, but I slept through a good deal of it so no review just yet.
Saturday, the actual anniversary of my birth, was a blast. Continue reading “My mother has a 46 year old son”
Getting the Hang of Thursdays 